Hawick and Hermitage councillor Watson McAteer also criticised the market’s current bosses for not getting more involved.

“Geraud have a responsibility to the market in terms of the contract, but they abdicate that responsibility by not sending anybody to the market,” he said.

“The market has now been overtaken by car boot sales.

“In the middle of it we now have a horsebox. It looks awful. I don’t know where it’s come from.

“The whole control over the market – how it looks, how it’s presented, what it’s going to deliver – will never move on if we leave it like that and try to sell the contract on if that is the proposition.

“I know it’s a bit of a chicken-and-egg situation, but they’re not fulfilling their obligations in terms of managing the market.

“There is a bit of a hard edge here that if they’re not going to send someone up, then someone’s going to have to go down on a Saturday and look at the health and safety aspects and see if they comply with that.”

Councillors sitting were asked whether they would like to continue looking for a new market manager or consider other options, such as closure or changing the frequency of market days.

The committee voted to continue marketing the contract, but its chairman, Hawick and Hermitage councillor George Turnbull, described the situation as unsatisfactory, saying: “Some stall-holders have been very loyal to the market over the years and they find it frustrating that Geraud has not done the things it said it was going to do.

“There’s a loyal customer base that still supports them, and that’s why they’re still there.

“The last thing we want to be seen to be doing is killing it, but technically it’s killing itself.”